One week after delaying the Japanese release of the VoIP tie up, Sony brings service to Europe and North America.

A week ago it looked like it was all about to go belly up. But now, Sony's deal with Skype is very much a reality, with the Big S including it in the latest PSP firmware.

Version 3.90, as it's known out in the wild, will let punters in North America and Europe (but definitely not Japan) get involved with the world's biggest internet chinwag. As long as they're tooled up with the PSP headset that is.

The announcement means Sony has hit their scheduled release of the end of January, but only after having to admit last week that their microphones had failed to live up to Skype's high standards, in the Far East at least.

Personally, we reckon this is an amazing tie in and makes the PSP an even tastier prospect than it already is.

With the new firmware also including expanded support for PlayStation Network titles and full-on Remote Play due this year, the PSP has certainly got staying power.

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